Jump: subscription-based Indie Gaming service

Jump is a subscription-based Indie gaming service that is available for various desktop operating systems and as a Web-based version.

Are game subscription services becoming the next big thing? The makers of Jump seem to think so. The service is in beta currently until July 24th and will launch officially later this year.

The service focuses on independent games, and will feature a list of over 60 titles on start that users can play using the service. The monthly fee is $9.99, and there is a 14 day initial trial period for users before they make a decision on whether to subscribe to the service or not.

The developers of Jump plan to add between 6 and 10 games to the service each month. Games will remain on the site for a minimum of 12 months, and there won't be any in-game ads or microtransactions.

Jump

The selection of games is limited to a handful in the beta. That's sufficient to give it a try and see how it works, but not enough to determine whether the price of $9.99 per month is reasonable.

Games that are showcased include The Bridge, a logic puzzle game, Teslagrad, a 2D puzzle platformer, and the action game Stunt Runner.

The client itself has a straightforward interface. It showcases games using large screenshots on the home page. You can scroll down there to display all available games, or use the search on the left to find games quickly.

The search functionality needs some work, as it finds game titles only currently. This means that you cannot search for genres for instance, art styles, or other characteristics of games.

You can start any game with a click on "play game". Game content is downloaded to the local device, but not permanently according to Jump's FAQ. While that is good for storage space on the device, it probably does not make much of a difference for the majority of indie games offered by jump, as they tend to be small in size for the most part.

Game progress is saved automatically, and you can pick up where you left off on the same device, or any other device that you use Jump on.

While you can use the game client to play games on Jump, you may use the web platform as well to do so. This in my opinion is the most interesting feature of Jump at this point in time. There are plenty of options to acquire these games and play them locally, but the option to play them online is quite unique.

Closing Words

It is too early to determine whether Jump stands a chance in the competitive game market. Indie games are popular, but the market is also flooded with games that are not super good. If the makers of Jump can manage to get popular indie games on board, it could become a smash hit with the indie gaming crowd.

The client and service needs a bit of refinement though before the official launch. Search filters and better search functionality for instance are needed, so that you can display only sports or RPG games in the client or online.

A subscription fee of $9.99 is quite the price for indie games though, considering that you can buy at least one indie game per month for that easily (probably more). Again, it depends on the selection of games whether it makes sense to subscribe to Jump, or buy those games you are interested in directly instead.